Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-12-17
PROHIBITION A MISTAKE.

4 Summary of Hon. p. L. AppleGste's Flo
uuCnt Address at Ashland.
The following is given Us summary Of
the speech on the Prohibition amendment
delivered by f. l.. Applegate, at Ashland:
wiSh to remark in beginning that this
Prohibition movement belongs to the cat
egory Of mistakes. 1t is grave question,
AMI Que that involves the fuudamental
principles OF our republican form of gov
torn Of al issue before the American peo-
pie want record made of discussion
o. this question 10 Oregon, 50 that when
We shall have voted the amendment down
as hope we will, the people OF Maine
may know we did it with deliberate pur-
pose and after due considerati0n-nOt by
mere bliGI prejudice against Temperance
legislation.
There are fundamental grounds ON
which all unite. am an old surveyor,
and in making a survey in any field my
first care is TO find the starting point. In
Our country We nave q grea, party which
We can agree to be hundred years old
the Democratic party-a party which has
powerful convictions, and sets forth claims
tn the performance OF many important
services 10 the country. We have another
great party--the Republican, third ~
old a. the other. Their differences about
where the stake should be set in the sur
vsy have cost much, but have been settled.
When EG go back on the lines OF survey,
we find point where the two parties
cOule together on common grOund-where
the Democrat and Republican meet and
shake bands II We follow back the line
OF survey, take the bearings from the
witness tree and dig down where
the lines converge, we shall find
the cOrner-the rock planted by the fathers
of the republic. We can always make n
correct start here for our survey. That
corner ia the declaration that the citizen Is
capable OF sslfgOyernnept. TO be SOW
eraign people we must accept this principle.
For ages kings, hierarchs, despots have de-
MED the principle, and have based on their
denial the divine right Of kings, and the
authority Of ecclesiastical pOtentates.
When we abandon this We give up the fun
damsntal principles o. our government.
If RAN il incapable Of seltgoyernment,
there can he no republic, and the strongest
man can gather and rule as many AZ ne can
handle
Individual sovereignty must becxercised
in order to exist in force, and 1t must have
opportunities for exercise. The Prohibi-
tiOnists would settle man SO low in the
scale Of sovereign citizenship, that they
would take away from him even the right
to refuse to drink. They would take away
the night 10 exercise his manhood and de-
yclOp ms character.
The Democratic and Republican parties
arC together ut the great corner stone oi Oar
government, but there is another great
party that is spreading and is already as
wide aS tue republic. | don't want to
abuse Il. | am with it ia as purposes for
good. but at war with it's methods. 1t is
called TIE National Reform party, and it
wants TO remodel the Constitution OF the
United States upon the ecclesiastical plan.
Its great lett wing is the WOman'S Chris
tiau Temperance Unjon-actiye, persistent,
powerful It's right wing is called the
Great Prohibition Organization" 1t is
Organized in three.iOurthS Of the States and
is spreading lis literature broadcast over
the Land Il is speaking from thousands
of pulpits every week. Its corner stake or
starting point means that the Sitj$en j. not
capable Of government. The reyO~
lutiOnary fathers saw that safety
required the government to he
founded upon purely secular basis, the
State entirely divorced from the church.
They establish mans government to do
mans work. This neE party sets its stake
away down in Judea, following hac. on an
old survey which our revolutionary fathers
declared 10 be radically erroneous Their
survey frOn this stake carried them inev
iubly-nOt to q republic, but to the con
Version II this republic into vast Indian |
reservation, with ClerGymen for agents !
This would suit the clersy. They have
put the governments in that situation sll !,
through the ages whenever they had the
power. The citizen is asked TO in this |
amendment to vote that he is not capable |
OF eltgOysSnllant-tO vote himself an In
dian on reservation, Y ith an sgeut TO /
keep him from getting drunk.
Mental convictions are stronger, greater, I
more lasting than anything else in the
world. Castles and monument may crum-
bic, Kingdom and nation rise and fall
mental convictions 9ptlaSt them all and
live down through all time. Mental and
moral convictions have never heen estab-
hshed by force by Prohibition. The fall of
AdsSl Cpd Eve shows the principle. Oaly
an apple WAS pyohibited-and they ate the |
apple, and We have no Secoaat Of their eat
ing any other kind of fruit TIE reaction
airy effect OF Prohibition must be considered.
Take from history an instance of the
working OF the Prohibition philosophy. In
the time Of Henry VIII, the church pre-
sCrihed certain forms of ceremony, apparel
In the pulpit, etc. Non-cOnformity was
punished inst with loss Of privilege-then
tho atliUinUp nf The ,,o,